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Thursday, June 14, 2012

I know that growing up in the Pacific Northwest plays a big part in that. It was always raining there and most locals learn to love it. And love it, I did. I spent nearly 20 years of my life in the beautiful state of Washington and came to love the drizzles, the steady drip-drop that soothed me to sleep, and most of all the torrential downpours.

I think it must be in my children’s blood too, though they have never lived anywhere close to WA.

Earlier this week, we had a huge rain shower that lasted for almost an hour. Torrential rain. Which is really the only way that it rains here in the Southeast. Hard.

We had just made it home from running errands as the torrents began. (side note: I’m so thankful for our garage!!!) Isaiah took off running into the house and shouted behind him, “Mom, can I get my rain coat and go play outside?” The other boys echoed his words. Joshua declared, “I’d like to wear my red rain coat and carry my orange umbrella from IKEA.” (haha). Noah yelped out, “Raincoat too, please Mommy?”

And then off they went. Or… off we went. You’d think I could refrain from jumping in a few puddles myself, but no. I couldn’t. I had to be out there with them.

Seeing their delight in the rain took me back.

Way back.

And I felt so nostalgic as the pure and refreshing Spring rain poured out upon the earth. Watering the grass, my garden, and our hearts.

I was reminded of a childhood verse that I loved dearly, and that would often come to mind during rain showers as a kid. I remember I found the verse while following my first “read through the Bible” in a year schedule as a young girl.

Hosea 6:3

Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;his going out is sure as the dawn;he will come to us as the showers,as the spring rains that water the earth.”

Isn’t that a beauty? In the beginning verses of the chapter, Hosea prophesies of Christ’s return, and urges us to flee to Christ, and then finishes with verse three—calling us to know Him, to press on, because the Lord will come as surely as the spring rain. He will pour out Himself upon us so that we are covered in entirety.

Just like this beautiful refreshing spring rain that watered us today.

* thanks for the “rain coats,” Mom! We didn’t know several years back when you bought them that having all three, in different colors, would come in handy! But boy oh boy, my boys were glad to each have a firefighter rain coat of there own today. Score!!

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

To celebrate Memorial Day this year, we headed out to the beach.Okay, so really we weren’t being all that patriotic, we just took advantage of the day off work. Haha. I’ve been wanting to go to the beach, as have the boys, so this was the perfect opportunity.

The boys got ready in their swim suits and then while I decided if I could still pull off a swimsuit in pregnant style (which, apparently, I can! Phew!) and packed the rest of the gear, I asked the boys to run out to the backyard to gather a few beach toys.

I packed the cooler with drinks and snacks, and collected beach towels etc, and then went out to supervise the boys. Of course, I was expecting they’d gathered shovels and buckets for the beach, but what was I thinking??? When I went outside, I discovered a great collection three yellow dump trucks, an excavator, and a bulldozer or two all neatly arranged by the minivan for transport to the beach.

Perhaps needless to say, I laughed out loud.

And Nick laughed out loud too when he got home from his breakfast meeting. There is just something amusing and endearing in the earnest looks from our boys and the assortment of wheels and diggers. Boys will be boys. And their parents? Well, we love for our boys to be boys too. Oh boy, do we love their boyishness. So without hesitation, we loaded up an entire giant bucket full of their vehicles, however awkward and bulky it would be to carry, and transported them to the beach as requested.

It was SO worth it.

The boys were the talk of the town. Or the talk of the beach. Though it was my youngest who spent the most time playing with the trucks. The older two passed the time splashing in the waves with Dad.

Tropical Storm Burl had made its way up the coast and had just passed by and left clear beautiful weather, lots of shells and still some residual waves and wind. We had driven through heavy rain and wind en route, and wondered what the weather would look like on the coast, but it was absolutely gorgeous. 85 degrees and sunny. Breezy. Really the perfect day at the beach.

We all played and relaxed contentedly. Nick and I even got a few chapters of beach reading in. When does that ever happen?